I have been reading a lot lately about how everyone who buys PK-Unlimited's 625 mesh Al finds that it will barely burn.

I bought a pound of 625 mesh Al from them on Ebay before I read about how much it sucks.It came in the mail a couple days ago and I was forced to keep it because I cannot get a refund. I kept it in my cabinet for a couple days until my Potassium Perc came.

So I mixed the two chemicals together and put it in the salute casing bought from www.cannonfuse.com. I closed it up and decided to try and light it thinking it wont do anything based upon what I have read here.

Well, I waited for the suspensful 5 seconds and decided it wasn't going to ignite so I uncovered my ears and walked towards it. KA-F**KING-BOOM!!

After my ears stopped ringing, I went back outside to see if there was anything left of the tube (stupid I know).

Moral of this post: While PK-Unlimited 625 mesh Al powder isn't the best, it still will perform well.

Waiting only five seconds is not only dangerous but insane.

From experience, EOD usualy will not show up for at least a half hour.

I beg you to please review some basic safety precautions.

Five seconds?!

That's all the time you gave it before approaching? How long do you normally give 'em, a heartbeat?

I wouldn't go near the thing at all if it was a dud. Unless it was in my backyard, I'd leave the scene and let someone else deal with it.

Lack of good pyro aluminium is the least of your worries when you're lacking good sense! :rolleyes:

Sorry about that, it was meant to be exaggerated and to say 15 seconds. There was 3 inches of visco fuse protruding from the salute and if I remember correctly, visco burns at 2.5 seconds per inch. I assumed since it burned at 2.5s per inch, that it would take give or take 7s to burn completely. I gave it an extra couple seconds and it went off.

Ekilo, pardon my ignorance but what does EOD stand for?

First comes the EOD, then the Useless Thread Disposal team shortly thereafter to administer the painless and humane HED.

Explosive ordinance disposal

EOD, like what ShadowMyGeekSpace said, stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal. They are the folks responsible for taking care of explosives that are "duds".

When we have something that didn't go off, we call them. They take their time getting there....for a reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_disposal

Playdough:

HED is anything but humane and painless, if I have anything to do with it. ;) :D

I got a really good laugh off of this thread. Because of that I decided to share my experience with PK Unlimited Aluminum Powder.

Many years I have experienced with Flash Powder and its production. Utilizing all the standard types of Aluminum Powder. Never quite experiencing the same "repeated effects" I experienced with PK's product.

If a person was to take 10 round standard "shell's" and fill them with the powder I recieved, not all the devices would be of even and equal power. Even when carefull steps are taken to assure equality. Some of the "Salutes" will be embarrasing at best, while others have substantial power and brisance.

Seeing that my knowledge is limited on the Science of Metal Powders I can only speculate on what is happening here.

It's my belief that the original owners "spiced" up the spherical powder with something "hotter", leaving a product that is not uniformly mixed or uniformly "hot."

I have problems with the description this company uses for their Al powder.

They indicate that it's spherical - flake is better for flash. They indicate the
mesh size without the minus "-" in front of it. IIRC, the minus sign means
that ALL of the powder will pass through a specific mesh screen.

This could be a mixture indicating that only some of the powder is of that mesh.

That could certainly explain some of the performance differences that, Cracker
has experienced. Also, I can't believe that this powder would perform as well
as something like 2-micron German Dark.

When I set off devices I would wait 20 minutes after the last smoke from the fuse before approaching.

You must remember that even though the fuse is not still burning the end can still be hot. If you pick up the salute you move the powder inside the salute which could contact hot fuse remains and there go your fingers, if you are lucky...

I have had a situation like this with a Ebay seller called boomsupply.
They seem to use salvaged Al from machine shops as it sticks together like crazy and has the distinct smell of machine shop fluids.

Sometimes you get great flash from one batch and then the next batch is not so great.

With real 5413 Blackhead on Ebay, why take a chance on junk Aluminum?

About EOD, isn't it mainly illegal to make any of this kind of stuff. And if so, why would you call someone to come and pick up your duds. Unless you leave before they get there or sumthing...?

Sir Fearless: Methinks there was some humor involved in that statement. EOD folks usually respond to "bomb scares" when a physical device, suspected to be an explosive, is found. Often the fallout (no pun intended) involves a lot of sirens, followed by a lot of questions . . .